Kris Kobach calls protesters’ actions appalling

Kansas immigration activists and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach are facing off after a weekend demonstration Kobach calls appalling.

Hundreds of protesters converged on Kobach’s front porch Saturday.

The Sunflower Community Action group says more than 700 people gathered at Trinity United Methodist Church to talk about what they call common sense immigration reform.

From the church, a couple hundred boarded buses to Secretary Kobach’s house, they say, to deliver a personal message to him.

“Kris Kobach, we know you can do it. We know you can stand with us,” a member of the Sunflower Community Action group says into a bullhorn while facing the crowd of protesters.

Video posted online by the group shows a rally on the front steps of Kobach’s home.

“We hope that our fathers will not be gone tomorrow,” the man continues in his speech to the crowd.

In a statement the group says they gathered outside Kobach’s home to remind him that Kansans believe in keeping families together — adding Kobach has spent years promoting hateful policies that force families, friends and neighbors to live in fear.

“There ain’t no power like the power of the people and the power of the people don’t stop …” the crowd chants as they leave Kobach’s home and march through the neighborhood.

In the video shot by the Sunflower action group, protesters can be seen leaving shoes at Kobach’s door, they say to symbolize all the families left fatherless due to deportation.

“We’ve left these shoes here so maybe Mr. Kobach can try to fill them because these are the shoes of the fathers he deported, that have been deported by his laws that he’s lobbied for and passed.”

In an interview with FOX News on Monday, Kobach says he was not home Saturday during the protest, but told the FOX News reporter he was appalled, saying, “They have a right to protest at my office or at public places. But they don’t have a right to enter someone’s private property and engage in this kind of intimidation.”

Kobach went on to say, “It’s important we recognize there’s a reason we have the second amendment — if we had been in the home and not been armed, I would have felt very afraid because it took the police 15 minutes to show up.”

The KCK Police Department issued a statement saying it is aware of the protest and is reviewing matters to determine if any laws were violated.

On a separate note, Kansas City, Kan., Mayor Mark Holland is the pastor of the church where the protestors gathered Saturday before the demonstration.